Sustainability defines the need for any society to live within the constraints of the land’s capacity to deliver all natural resources it consumes. To be sustainable, nature and its endowment need to be linked to human behavior, similar to the practices of indigenous peoples. The River of Life compares the general differences between Native Americans’ and the Western world’s view of resources and provides the nuts and bolts of a sustainability portfolio designed by indigenous peoples. It also introduces ideas on how to link nature and society to make sustainable choices, aiming to facilitate thinking about how to change destructive behaviors and to integrate indigenous culture into thinking and decision processes.
 
 

Michael E. Marchand is a council member of the Confederated Tribes of Colville Reservation and president of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians–Economic Development Corporation.
Kristiina A. Vogt is professor of ecosystem management at the University of Washington.
Asep S. Suntana is a program director of KEHATI/Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation, CBNRM (Community- Based Natural Resources Management) KEHATI–MCA–Indonesia.
Rodney Cawston is language program manager for the Confederated Tribes of Colville Reservation.
John C. Gordon is chairman of Interforest, LLC, a founder of the Candlewood Timber Group, Inc., and Pinchot Professor Emeritus of Forestry and Environmental Studies at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
Mia Siscawati is a researcher at the Sajogyo Institute in Bogor, Indonesia, and a visiting lecturer at the Department of Anthropology, University of Indonesia.
Daniel J. Vogt is associate professor in soil and ecosystem ecology at the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, College of the Environment, University of Washington.
John D. Tovey is director of planning for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon.
Ragnhildur Sigurdardottir is a research scholar at the Reykjavik Academy in Iceland.
Patricia A. Roads is the communications director for the Center for Adaptive Policy in Ecosystems International.